Bowen Yang stuns viewers with ‘Saturday Night Live’ exit

Bowen Yang is set to exit Saturday Night Live following his appearance on the show’s Christmas episode, which will air on December 20 and is hosted by his Wicked: For Good co-star, Ariana Grande.

The comedian-actor first joined the comedy sketch series as a writer in 2018, marking his SNL debut in season 44.

While he “joined the cast as a featured player the following year and became part of the main group for season 47,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The outlet also reported that it is Yang’s own choice to leave SNL at this juncture, while the timing is not much of a surprise since he “has become a hot Hollywood commodity,” with several projects in the pipeline.

Besides hosting the podcast Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers, the 35-year-old performer will also appear in Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s and My Mother and Me, with a voice-acting role in a new adaptation of The Cat in the Hat.

He is additionally writing a screenplay for Searchlight Pictures in which he is set to star opposite his podcast’s co-host as “a pair of Americans attempting to get into the most exclusive nightclub in the world.”

Speaking to PEOPLE back in April, Yang had reflected on his future as part of Saturday Night Live: “SNL, it’s just this moving, living, breathing thing. Especially after the 50th, I’m seeing what life after the show is like and how beautiful it is, and how so many people, no matter how long they were at the show, are just with their families and loving their lives and not letting the years take away any of that experience for them.”

Bowen Yang’s final episode on the NBC programme will feature Ariana Grande as the host, with Cher joining the episode as its musical guest.